The Colony’s Loans.

Manawatu Herald, 10 May 1904, Page 2

The Colony’s Loans.

MR SEDDON AND MR MASSEY. The Premier has issued a statement in reply to recent utterances by Mr Massey, the Leader of the Opposition. Mr Seddon says: “ During the course of Mr Massey’s peregrinations in the South Island, he made a statement that for the purchase of lands under the Lands for Settlements Act we were pledging the lands of the colony to the English money-lender. To this I rejoined that for the last two years the whole of the money required for the purchase of lands under the Lands for Settlements Act had been obtained in the colony. Mr Massey replied that it was evident that for eight years the money had been obtained in the English money market, and that he was quite right; also that a return would prove that he was correct in his contention. “To save Mr Massey any further anxiety, and to show that his statements cannot be relied upon, the following information will be interesting i—Out of £4,895,000 raised to 31st March last for the purposes of land for settlements, including authorities under the Native Land Purchases Act, 1892, only £300,000 was raised in London. The balance, £4,595,000, has been raised within the colony. As Mr Massey, however, will probably address other meetings, I desire to make this infori raation public, to prevent him from making further mistakes. Nothing will give me greater pleasure than to place a return on the table of the House when Parliament meets.” Interviewed on the subject on Saturday morning, Mr Massey pointed to the Blue Books, in which the annual statement of the Land for Settlements Department laid before Parliament appears and shows that on 31st March, 1909, the amount raised under the Land for Settlements Act of 1894 had been £2,675,487, while elsewhere it would be seen that £125,000 had been raised under the Native Land Purchases Act of 1892. The Act of 1894 provides (section 82) that a maximum sum of £500,000 may be raised yearly, but in the event of less than £500,000 being raise&in any one year, it may be made tupK succeeding years. This BUtnoi £2,675,487 was secured by shortdated debentures at an average rate of interest of about 3| per cent. Mr Massey points out that a future Colonial Treasurer, when the British money market is favourable, will approach it with a conversion loan proposal, paying off the debentures and ultimately pledging the lands to the London money-lender. Mr Massey also points to the extraordinary difference in the figures of 31st March 1903, and 31st March, 1904. Combining the Blue Book’s figures and Mr Seddon’s explanation, it would actually appear that the liabilities incurred under the Land for Settlements Act last year amounted to over two million pounds. This is obviously absurd, but it shows that even Mr Heddon’s figures, so far “saving Mr Massey any further anxiety,” befog the issue in an extraordinary way.—Post.